It is frequently necessary to suspend bodies from 3 dimensional airfoil structures, e.g., wings of aerospace vehicles, for any of a number of reasons. For example, it may be necessary to suspend bodies having arbitrary structural properties from aerospace vehicles during flight. Such bodies can include, for example, weapons, radar, sensors, and probes suspended from wings. Other bodies may require being dragged behind the aerospace vehicle and include, for example, instruments for obtaining meteorological data measurements of the atmosphere, or refueling pods with hose and drogues. In most cases, the aerospace vehicle moves through the air at very high velocities resulting in turbulent vortices around the suspended body and/or downstream of a dragged body. As a result, aerodynamic forces on the body generated by vortices can result in undesired vibration and/or buffet.
The properties of these vortices depend on the shape of the bodies and the air speed of the vehicle. In the case of a refueling pod, for example, an opening in the pod for exiting of a hose and of its stabilizing cage has to be provided. Such an opening may present a larger dimension, due to which a blunt construction shape is generated in the rear region of the refueling pod. This aft blunt stream body shape presents aerodynamic disadvantages, as vortices and turbulences form downstream and possibly in proximity to the wing/pylon resulting in undesirable vibration of the wing. Moreover, even a so-called streamlined body, such as a weapon or other pod-like store can create disruptions of the air stream in proximal to the body at high speeds such as transonic speeds sufficient to cause vibration and/or buffet.
Historically, aircraft manufacturers have believed that the best way to mount engines, stores, and other such items on high speed (e.g., transonic) wings is to move the item as far forward of the wing as is structurally possible to minimize the aerodynamic interactions between the wing and the item(s) being attached. In the case of Wing Aerial Refueling Pods (WARPs), however, integration restraints as to where the WARPs can be placed relative to the wing may not allow for such optimal placement. In certain WARPs configurations, e.g., mounted directly under the wing, where a superposition of the maximum thickness of the pod/pylon and the wing closely coincided, adverse behavior including excess vibration and/or buffet can result.
Thus, when a body, even a streamlined body, is combined with a generic transonic wing, deleterious aerodynamic impacts can be realized in the form of vibration or buffet problems. At such high speed, the body can drive regions of complex shock formations and/or pockets of separation which act as primary sources for vibration and/or buffet experienced by the aerospace vehicle.